I fell in love with creating content. A few years ago, I began shooting, editing and producing personal short films. As I did that, I began to meet various filmmakers and realized that there were really talented, independent filmmakers around the world. Young, scrappy, super talented people who were eager to create content they believe in. At the same time, I had come from the ad agency world and realized that big agencies were having a difficult time meeting the needs of global brands who needed more and more content for their social media channels, but with smaller budgets. So those two things collided at the same time and it sparked the idea to start a company by building a global network of filmmakers to meet the needs of brands and agencies. Our network has now expanded to include photographers, producers as well as other content creators.

Why Brooklyn?

Brooklyn is where it’s at. To me, it feels like home. It’s creative, has beautiful views of NYC, it’s close to all of our NYC clients, and it has everything we love about Manhattan but without the unnecessary stress and chaotic crowds. We also recently opened an office in West Hollywood. We love that area of LA because it’s easy access to our various production needs / locations throughout the city.

What was the first job someone hired you for?

It was for a start-up out in San Fran, called Misfit Wearables. We launched their first product and helped them raise over $840k by creating two videos that were shot around the world.

Which work or brand are you best known for?

Starbucks. With our network of cinematographers and producers, we shot their first global campaign across 28 countries.

Who is your most interesting staff member?

Top Dog (Cynthia). She’s a 25 lb dog (mutt) who we’ve taught to read, write, and run meetings. She’s also been known to party hard, but you’re going to have to dig through Instagram to find those incriminating photos.

How has the business changed since you started?

Brands are no longer loyal to one agency of record to cover all of their marketing needs. Most brands are now choosing to work with multiple, smaller agencies and partners.

What do you make of the trend where brands are skipping their agency of record to work directly with production partners?

It all depends on the brand, the production partner and the project. Different projects call for different things. Brands are realizing that for certain needs, they just need content / storytelling created quickly, inexpensively and at a great quality. For some of these projects, a more traditionally focused agency isn’t always necessary. We’ve also noticed more and more that brands like working directly with partners that make things.

What is the best thing about working at Co.MISSION Content Group?

Opportunity. We’re growing and working with great people around the world. It’s an exciting world to be a part of. Outside of that, it’s creating work that we believe in with people we value and admire, the flexibility our company has to offer, the view from our office, and First Time Fridays (we take the team out each Friday to do something new, like visit a museum, play bocce ball, etc. as a reward for their hard work and to keep things fresh).

What does the future look like for you?

Working with more clients who are great people that want to create things / stories that they would feel proud showing their friends and family. We’re also working to expand even more with offices in each region of the globe. And most importantly, we want to have fun making cool shit. We love helping our clients achieve their wildest dreams.

SilkTricky was born due to the partners having limited skills outside of this field. When we looked at the options on the table, we became inspired to get our asses in gear and make something happen. Additionally, we are passionate about creating and seeing ideas come to life. Our industry is somewhat unique in that there isn’t much holding you back from making a mark. If you have the brainpower, creativity, and motivation, you can go far.

What was the most technically challenging work you’ve created?

We’ve had many projects that were technically challenging to pull off due to crappy timelines, those types of projects challenge your sanity, but don’t necessarily force you to work outside your comfort zone. Back in 2008 we came up with, and funded, an internal project: Bank Run. This remains the most challenging project we’ve completed. A small team worked across a variety of disciplines to make it all happen. It entailed writing and directing a short interactive film, then turning it into an experience that was played in part on the desktop, then continued within a game developed for the iPhone.

What is the smartest work you’ve seen in the past year that didn’t come from your shop?

We’re starting to see work that is inspirational to us in the post-flash era. A lot of great projects come out of Google Creative Labs, and they seem to partner with some of the best in the industry. But, freshest in our mind are a few projects from Active Theory. They seem to be a lot smarter than us, which allows them do to smarter work. Check out:

Our hope is that one day, when clients stop asking us for everything to work in IE8, we can attempt work this good.

What is your biggest challenge at the moment?

The biggest ongoing challenge in this industry is achieving a good work/life balance. You have to maintain your current workload, while also constantly acquiring new skills. Technology is constantly changing. In other fields things might change as much in 40 years as they do in 4 within our industry.

What advice do you have for agency producers or creatives?

Put a little more trust in the creative abilities of your digital production partners. Their teams are often made up of great talent that often is under utilized, when they are turned into clicking robots with no voice.

Any wild company party stories?

Yes.

Care to share a joke?

“We also started a band called 999 Megabytes — we haven’t gotten a gig yet.”

That first meeting is best described in metaphorical terms. Steve’s head was on fire and Rik had the fire extinguisher. It’s a metaphor that works on a number of levels, probably because it’s also what actually happened.

Why Wellington and Amsterdam?

Although we are a small company, our location gives us a global reach. New Zealand lies between Asia and America, so our working day overlaps with both East and West. As we have have important partners in each continent, this puts is in an enviable strategic position. We can communicate with New York and San Francisco in the morning and Shanghai in the afternoon. As our business started to grow, we needed to expand. In 2012, we opened an office in Amsterdam. In addition to its growing importance as a creative media hub, Amsterdam is almost diametrically opposite Wellington, giving us excellent global coverage. We are now the yin and the yang; the alpha and the omega.

What was the first job someone hired you for?

It was a semi-lucrative little job for a restaurant chain called McDondald’s. They needed a fry cook. A deal was struck. Burgers were made. They’ve since become a global success story. We know we can’t take all the credit, but we like to think we made a difference.

What was the most difficult technical challenge you have faced?

Entering the alarm code, drunk.

What are you best known for?

We are probably best known for the oblique angle at which we approach projects. Perception is predicated on perspective. There’s no getting around that. Our perspective comes from being outsiders who barged into the party, uninvited. We’re a small company from a small country at the bottom of the world. No one was going to open the door for us. We made our own door. And now that we’re in, we’re going to laugh at the better-dressed guests and stuff our faces with cake until they kick us out.

What is the smartest work you’ve seen in the past year that didn’t come from your shop?

The source of our inspiration spreads well beyond our industry. We’re still amazed by the little things like: who chose to pave Wellington with the slipperiest bricks ever? How do they make those warm noodles so fast? Have you seen that pretzel-making machine?

How has the business changed since you started?

Social media and mobile have had a huge impact on our deliverables. We started the same year as Facebook and the iPhone wasn’t launched until three years later. Now screens are getting bigger. And smaller. Halp. The digital ocean is an ever-changing environment that is constantly throwing up new challenges. The rogue waves and hurricanes are what make it an exciting journey.

What emerging tech trend will have the biggest impact on your business?

The field of prognosticating the future is fraught with bad predictions. The future is inherently unpredictable. When making future preparations, the best strategy is to be adaptable to any change that might come your way. Having said that, we’re happy to make some bad predictions of our own: Wearable holographic nanobot swarms. Edible furniture. Prosthetic tails. Autonomous, self-cooking vegetables. Jail-broken immersion chambers with bored-out five-dimensional ports. Dogphins. Amorphous fleshwound adaptors. Comfier chairs. Robotic lawsuits. Technology abandoned for cannibalism. Exoplanetary cartography. Fruit-flavored meat. Obedient children. Okay, okay, the last one was a bit far-fetched, but we stand by the rest.

What advice do you have for agency producers or creatives?

If you’re looking for sage-like wisdom pre-packaged into edible bite-sized chunks, we’ve got bad news for you: life is more complex than that. Our best advice? Come to New Zealand, hang out with us and make cool things.

What is the best thing about working at Resn?

Somehow Resn has managed to attract a team of exceptionally talented, charming, and physically attractive human specimens. The unique melange of their individual personalities make working at Resn an exciting, uplifting, and joyful experience. Their creative sensibilities inform the collective Resn culture, which is a hothouse of innovation and… Is anyone actually buying this? The best thing is totally the free internet, coffee, craft beer and giant balcony overlooking the harbour.

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The partner spotlight is a weekly series where we go behind the scenes with some of the companies that make VendorDB great. Next up is Bannerboy!

The Vitals:

Name: Bannerboy
Locations: Stockholm and Amsterdam
Year Founded: 2010
Specialties: We work with the world’s top advertising agencies to create flawless banners with super-slick design, smooth animation and advanced functionality. Bannerboy is a production house where attention to detail and craftsmanship is our main passion.

What inspired you to start your company?

We identified a gap in the market, a sweet spot, that was delivering higher production value and service than a freelancer, but being faster, more flexible and cost efficient than the top tier digital production companies (that tend to focus on larger projects). Having worked with digital production from the agency side, we knew exactly what we would have wanted from a production partner.

What was the first job someone hired you for?

It was a banner for the biggest financial paper in Sweden, Dagens Industri. We still showcase it on our website for sentimental reasons.

What was the most technically challenging work you’ve created?

Probably the mobile game “Chrome Sky Race” we built for Google (with 72 & Sunny in Amsterdam). It’s all Javascript, rendered with Canvas in the browser. Getting it to run smoothly in hundreds of different devices with very different capabilities was no picnic.

Which work or brand are you best known for?

“The Homeless banners”, a campaign we created with Garbergs and Stopp. It’s one of our earliest projects, we still show it to clients sometimes and more often than not someone in the room has already seen it.

How has the business changed since you started?

Technology is changing so rapidly it’s hardly worth mentioning. We try instead to focus on the stuff that doesn’t change. Storytelling, design, animation and coding are some of the things we work hard at mastering. These are the components to a great execution, regardless of which framework, software or device is big at the moment.

What do you see changing over the next couple of years?

Looking back we’ve been somewhat limited in what type of content we can deliver, especially when it comes to ads and making these work globally. We have to consider file size, loading times, mobile browser capabilities, etc. New technology will lift some of these limitations, allowing us to deliver richer content. For this reason we are investing heavily in our 3D and post production department.

What advice do you have for agency producers or creatives?

Many of our clients like to involve us at an early stage. This gives us the opportunity to contribute with our ideas and experience, which often makes the idea grow and evolve. Being involved in this way also strengthens the working relationship between us and the client, and get’s our staff more excited and passionate about the project.

What is your biggest challenge at the moment?

We are seeing an increasing demand for our services from all over the world. In this time sensitive business, working with different time zones can be a major challenge. We’ve only had good experiences so far, but working with clients overseas demands some healthy padding in the project timeline, and often an adjustment of our working hours. Delivering fast and top notch service is of paramount importance to us, and this is much easier when you are local. We have plans for several new offices in the near future, to accommodate clients all over the world.

What is the best thing about working at Bannerboy?

There’s a long list but ultimately it’s about our attitude and values. We want to create the company that we’ve always wanted to work for. Treating our staff like family is not only good for business and karma, it’s how we feel proud of what we do.

What does the future look like for Bannerboy?

Digital screens are everywhere nowadays; outside, in your pocket, on your arm, in store windows, the list keeps growing. Every screen is potentially an ad space for which we can build beautiful, interactive, content.